Ann Atwater apologized for being late to the library dedication. She says isn’t normally a part of her character. Typically if somebody is tardy charges them a quarter like she joked about during her speech. Community members in attendance didn’t hold her tardiness against her — instead, they spent time with her after her speech, asked her questions and requested autographs for their copies of “The Best of Enemies: Race and Redemption in the New South.” (Staff photo by Sarah Butler)
It’s been said that kids say the darndest things. For the Walltown Aspiring Youth program, it’s the children who have the best ideas.
The Walltown Aspiring Youth program, or the WAY, mentors students after school in the areas of physical, social, academic and spiritual growth.
At the end of the 2015 spring semester, the youth were given a survey, which asked them how the WAY could improve and if they had any specific requests. One of the requests was for access to books about people like them.
Jahzamire Coggins, a 12th grade student at Kestrel Heights High School, participates in the WAY. She says she’s read “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston and that she has more ideas on how to add to the program such as taking trips to North Carolina Central University’s track, the state fair or acquiring audiobooks for the library. (Staff photo by Sarah Butler)
On Oct. 2, the School of Conversion, located at 923 Onslow St., hosted the grand opening of the Ann G. Atwater Freedom Library.
Jonathan Wilson-Hargrove, the School for Conversion director, said they named the library after Atwater because she “embodies the kind of leadership Walltown needs.”
Atwater, who is 80 years old, alongside the late C.P. Ellis, a one-time leader of the KKK, led Durham Public Schools to integrate its schools. In the 1970s she founded Operation Breakthrough in the Walltown neighborhood, which fought for civil rights and to bring more opportunities to the community.
On a rainy autumn day, people of all ages and races gathered in St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church’s fellowship hall to hear from Atwater.
Elizabeth Styron, a Duke master’s of divinity student, said that even though all the seats were taken, more people should have attended the library’s grand opening.
“As a community, if more people knew how much she has done in this place, and the voice that she had in that time, …(then) a lot more people should have been here to appreciate her, to celebrate her, and to honor the work she’s done,” Styron said.
She said she was thankful for the chance to listen to Atwater and celebrate the opening of the library for the future generation.
“I’m just happy to be in the presence of somebody who has been so influential for me in speaking against the negative influences that have affected the community,” she said. “We need more Ann Atwaters to stand up.”
Christopher Boswell, a WAY assistant coach, said when he saw Atwater’s story it moved him.
“I was so inspired that I used that story to teach my counselors that I was directing at a summer camp to show them what it looks like to be Jesus in the world,” Boswell said.
Atwater said she considers Hargrove a son because for nine years he cared for her. When he approached her for permission to name the library after her, she said she was honored.
“I was puzzled there for a minute and I just thought it was so nice of them, thinking enough of me, because all of my life I’ve come up with being a nobody,” Atwater said. “I was always taught that I’m somebody, but deep down inside of me I didn’t know how to put that inside me, but I did know that whatever I want I can get it if you try.”
The library isn’t the first to be named after the Durham civil rights hero. The Ann Atwater Community Charter School, which was forced to close due to low enrollment, was also named for Atwater.
Atwater said she’s excited for the movie adaption of the book “The Best of Enemies: Race and Redemption in the New South.”
She said she’ll be watching closely to see if Taraji P. Henson, the actress to play Atwater, “does it right.”
Atwater said there was one thing she forgot to tell the children when she spoke at the grand opening of the library.
She said, “The only way that they can make it is if they put God first and foremost in your life.”